Evo City - Battery going into sleep mode after 10-15 minutes

[DublinRider]

I have an Evo City very like this one: https://electricbikereview.com/easy-motion/evo-city/

I only have it 2 months but in the last 2 weeks, I've had a lot of trouble getting it to switch on - nothing happening when power button pressed (I have the older oval display). After a lot of cleaning connections, examining wiring and general poking and prodding, I usually got it to work after 20 minutes effort. Then it would work fine - switch on and off, even with battery and display removal and reinstall - also, riding fine. However, once I left it for 15 minutes or so, it would not come on again and I was back to square one! I was convinced it was a connection/wiring issue but the behaviour didn't make sense...

Anyway... I eventually realised (thanks to this post!) that the problem was related to the battery going into sleep mode. Now any time I want to use it, I just hold the button on the battery for 2 seconds and it comes on. Not ideal but better than 20 minutes tearing my hair out! The battery is 48V, 500wh.

Does anybody know why my battery has recently decided to sleep after 10-15 minutes of inactivity? Any DIY solutions or is it a shop repair/replacement? I'm reasonably 'handy' ;-)

Thanks in advance.

FWIW, I find the bike great (when it's working). I ride to work and back daily (about 45km round trip) and the motor makes that sustainable! But, I've had a few niggly problems (mostly resolved by cleaning the torque sensor periodically). I'm generally reluctant to bring it back to the shop because I expect I will be without it for a month! I've also done the ingenious delimit mod described here and here which makes it considerably more practical (I've gone from the EU limit of 25km to the US limit of 20mph).

 

[Ebiker01]

If you press the battery power button for about 15-20sec. It will enter a reboot mode , maybe that will awaken it ?

As far as the delimit , did you made those cables as described ?
Your model or the Bh ebikes with the oval display also work with the new venter mounted display.
That display has an Usb port, and also shows other parameters(Tq sea or voltage, cell voltage, battery state of health, controller temp. ) .
I wonder if that cross over cable could be connected directly to the USB port of the display in order to do the speed upgrade .
Mine does 30-31mph(is the Nitro city) but throttle only 13mph . I would like to adjust the throttle to 24-25mph.

 

[DublinRider]

Doh! *** HELP REQUIRED ***

I tried holding the button down for 15-20 seconds but now the bike won't switch on at all. While I was holding the button for that long, the 5-6 lights started coming on in turn, from bottom to top and repeating that. After a few seconds of that I took my finger off the button. Now it doesn't seem to work at all, even if I hold the button for 2 seconds, etc. like I did before. Pressing the button on the battery still displays the current charge (100%) but the button to turn on the bike does nothing. I've tried a good few different durations of holding down the battery button but bike has not come on since.

Any help would be much appreciated. Got to head home in about 30 minutes!!

 

[J.R.]

Doh! *** HELP REQUIRED ***

I tried holding the button down for 15-20 seconds but now the bike won't switch on at all. While I was holding the button for that long, the 5-6 lights started coming on in turn, from bottom to top and repeating that. After a few seconds of that I took my finger off the button. Now it doesn't seem to work at all, even if I hold the button for 2 seconds, etc. like I did before. Pressing the button on the battery still displays the current charge (100%) but the button to turn on the bike does nothing. I've tried a good few different durations of holding down the battery button but bike has not come on since.

Any help would be much appreciated. Got to head home in about 30 minutes!!

To wake my packs from sleep mode I hook them up to the charger. No matter the charge level. I do this off the bike. I've never held the battery button down for more than a split second to see charge level. I have 3 packs, oldest is 4 years old and the other two are 1-1/2 years old.

Your pack entering sleep mode so quick and so often is not right. Something is going on. Bad BMS possibly?

 

[DublinRider]

Thanks!

I've tried reading the voltage on this battery. It's less than 1V but a funny thing happens when I press the button. It goes up to about 54V then decreases over about 5 seconds back down to 1. Charger is not working on it (blinking red light which manual says is a charging fault).

 

[J.R.]

Thanks!

I've tried reading the voltage on this battery. It's less than 1V but a funny thing happens when I press the button. It goes up to about 54V then decreases over about 5 seconds back down to 1. Charger is not working on it (blinking red light which manual says is a charging fault).

With all these issues/symptoms directly related to the battery pack, my guess is a faulty BMS (battery management system) within the pack. Not typically a DIY repair. Just a guess though.

 

[Ebiker01]

He could try opening the pack ( or if you still have warranty, just call them and ask for a new battery). Is 2 years, possible expired on yours.

Open pack, carefully take the wires out , disconnect BMS, after 10sec., reconnect BMS, do a test charge , if it works , it was a Bms reset needed.

If it doesn’t work ,Which is unlikely, there is another issue.
Carefully pack up the wires back in , be very attentive to put them as close to the inward case (not behind the battery charging port ) as possible so that the 6 pins can retract back and UP. This part is ESSENTIAL to get right.

You can also open the frame and disconnect all controller wires , connect them back. But most likely is the BMS Needing a hard reset.

I payed 100$ to have it done 3years ago(the same way I just described) . Now hopefully this advice it can be useful for free.

Also with The system not turning on , try again the sleep cycle (press for 12-15sec ), then power on. I would try that a few times. If Still nothing , open the pack and disc/reco the BMS. That will do it. Last option would be to buy a Bms or a heavily used Bh battery and take the Bms from it.

From what I noticed , the Bh ebikes prior to 2017 or made in 2017 have some issues sometimes.

But the good thing with Bh, is that 90% of the times they are user fixable , maybe some diy work. Better then other brands . The 2018\2019 models are very reliable imho.
It would be really good if you get rid of that older display and get the wiring harness +central mounted display . It will work .
I have it on my older 2015 Evo wave city.
The oval display gave many errors.

 

[DublinRider]

Thanks Guys.

I took the battery home last night and did some more basic testing with a multi meter. I tried holding the button down again for approx. 1 minute and this time it seems to have resolved the latest issue - the lights didn't come on in sequence while holding the button this time and once I released, the voltage went up to 54V and stayed there (although it still goes to sleep mode after 10 minutes of inactivity - easily fixed by pressing the battery button)... Working again on bike now so the next step is to check in with the shop and hopefully they will order me a new one. BMS reset might work but since it's only 2 months old, I guess I would be mad to open up the battery myself!

That battery buttons probably does a whole range of things depending on how long you hold it down (so I would urge caution holding it down for longer than a few seconds!). The battery section of the EVO/Nitro manual describes the very basic button operations (link to European manuals in English). That section also shows that deep sleep mode is automatically entered after 10 minutes if the battery charge is less than 1% (which is happening on my battery, regardless of the charge level).

I will consider getting the centre-mounted display but I'm not too bothered about any of its features. I don't think I've had any issues with the display but if I do, I will change it.